The majority of resource-poor farmers in Tanzania and other countries in the area utilise their own non-commercial grade farm-saved seeds of less important crops, such pigeon pea. The quality of such seed is never assured. In order to verify the quality condition of farm-saved seeds for the pigeon pea crop and to ascertain the features of the crop's production in connection to the seeds used, a survey was carried out in the northern Tanzanian districts of Karatu and Babati. For a laboratory quality evaluation, 80 farmers' farm-saved seeds from the previous crop season were obtained. In both regions, only around 7.5% of the samples met the three physical quality standards for seed: germination capability, purity, and moisture content. Most samples were unsuccessful, especially in terms of purity. Rather of using improved varieties, 66.2 percent of farmers used locally prevalent traditional varieties, and the majority were sowing up to four seeds per hill. For the pigeon pea, 88.7% of the farmers utilised intercropping; 53.8% used store pesticides on their crop; and the majority did not sift the seeds they used for or before sowing. It is expected that, to some extent, production attributes are correlated with seed quality, however more research is required.
Author(s) Details:
Tarmo Theophil,
Research Community and Organizational Development Associates (RECODA), P.O. Box 10633, Arusha, Tanzania.
Danstun G. Msuya,
Department of Crop Science and Horticulture, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3005 Chuo Kikuu, Mrogoro, Tanzania.
Paul J. Njau,
Department of Crop Science and Horticulture, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3005 Chuo Kikuu, Mrogoro, Tanzania.
Please see the link here: https://stm.bookpi.org/CTAS-V8/article/view/7260
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